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Tier 1 to Tier 3

dspin815

Would it be stupid for me to transfer from Uconn (tier 1) to Suffolk (Tier 3). I most likely will be working in the Boston area when I graduate and I don't think there is much of a difference in the Boston market for these 2 schools. Suffolk may even be better. I have personal reasons why I want to be in Boston (fiance just got a job there). Anyd ideas?

I'm sure that prestige whores will jump all over this, but it sounds like you have a legitimate reason to be in Boston as opposed to CT. While I would try to transfer to BC or Boston U first, I don't think it would be a bad move.

It is my belief that there is not a huge drop in opportunity from T1 to T3 (once you get out of the elite schools). You may need to do a little better at a T3, but neither student is going to be competitve out of the region that they are located in unless you are ranked extremely high. So transfering from a higher ranked school outside of the region to a lower ranked one inside the region may be a good move.

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dspin815

Yea,I mean UConn's a good school but they do not hold many recruiting events with Boston firms and I think only like 6% of UConn students work in Boston when they graduate. The majority stick around Hartford.

I think it is a stupid move. One of the above posters mentioned transferring into BC/BU. That should be your only priority.

I am going to disagree with Shady and say there is a massive difference between T1 and T3. The minor placement jockeying in USNWR ranks is meaningless (is a #19 school > #25 school > #30 school?) but the general outline is a fair representation of how the legal market works1. Elite: T14 2. National: 15-25/30 3. Quasi-National: 30-50 4. Regional: T2 5. Local: T3/T4

It is pretty rough, and there are exceptions. Chicago, as a market, is an easy example of how this is accurate: 1. UChicago/Northwestern 2. Illinois/WUSTL/Notre Dame/etc3. Wisco/Indiana/etc 4. Kent/Loyola/DePaul 5. John Marshall/Northern Illinois/etc

To continue with the Chicago analogy: You are in a Quasi-National T1 that does not place heavily in the market you desire. Let's call that Ohio State for Chicago law firm purposes.

You want to the local T3 that places heavily in that market. That would be John Marshall, maaaaaybe DePaul for this.

I doubt any transfer student/seasoned law student/MidLaw-BigLaw attorney would think it sensible to leave Ohio State just b/c John Marshall places more graduates in Chicago. Ohio State is still the more respected legal degree in a national sense.

With no personal knowledge of the New England markets, I feel that UConn is still the more prestigious degree, irrespective of placement.

In Chicago, John Marshall grads are clawing for jobs with all the other John Marshall grads. The market knows the school is a T3 and firms are limited in how deep they draw from a JMLS class. I would think Boston with Suffolk is the exact same way. Suffolk grads must be a dime a dozen in Boston.

leave the fiance, or make him/her travel to see you on weekends with the money they are getting from the new job.

I agree with the posters above, if you cant transfer to BU/BC, then there is no good reason to leave UConn. Connecticut and Boston arent too far away anyway and many people have gone through longer breaks in their relationships. Plus, you could be a visiting student at the tier 3 your 3L year most likely, so you would only be doing one year away from the fiance.

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dspin815

I attend UCon part=time so I will only have about 20 credits after this year, so BU and BC won't take me as a transfer. So my options are transfer over to UConn full time and overload my schedule or stay in the part-time for 4 years. I was thinking of staying in UConn's part time program for another year, and then trying to transfer to BC or BU for my final 2 years.

This is getting off point, but there is no such thing as a national/quasi national school. Once you get outside the elite schools, you have to do very well in law school to be considered for the top jobs. A T3 student may need to do better (top 10%) than a T1 student (top 25-33%) to compete for the same job, but going to a T1 school is not a ticket to big law. Perhaps UConn does really well in Boston. I'm assuming that it doesn't, since two-thirds of their students work in CT. Also note that 9 months after graduation the remaining third is employed in 20 different states. That may make them seem national, but Suffolk's grades are employed in 24 different states (although nearly 80% work in MA).

To use your Chicago example, I think it would be better to go to DePaul, Chicago-Kent, or Loyola if you want to work in Chicago, than it would be to go to Wisconsin or Indiana.

Saying that a T1 is national or quasi-national is something T1 kids do to make them feel better about not going to an elite school. Unless you get into one of those elite schools, you need to go to the region you want to practice in and find the best school that you can afford. Then you need to do really well. Otherwise you're going to be very disappointed after you sink nearly $150k into your education, to find out that there aren't that many high paying jobs for a just better than average [insert T1 school] student.

Would it be stupid for me to transfer from Uconn (tier 1) to Suffolk (Tier 3). I most likely will be working in the Boston area when I graduate and I don't think there is much of a difference in the Boston market for these 2 schools. Suffolk may even be better. I have personal reasons why I want to be in Boston (fiance just got a job there). Anyd ideas?